Emil McAvoy - Reflections on Lily Pond

Emil McAvoy's study at Elam coincided with his mother Susan Sayer's diagnosis of dementia. People with dementia are often given increased exposure to family photographs to aid their de- clining memory. McAvoy's 'Dr Lily Pond' (2013), drawn from Susan’s photographs, features an enlarged studio portrait in her doctoral university garb. Susan playfully referred to herself using this pseudonym; with her associated entanglementof fact and fiction, perhaps she has now fully adopted this persona. 'Reflections on Lily Pond' presents a selection of reprinted photographs from Susan's archive: a loving portrait, a self portrait of sorts, a meditation on photography and forgetting.